January Goodness From the Garden…
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When much of the nation is freezing their socks off, and their gardens are covered in a blanket of snow, I realize how much of a blessing it is to live in a climate where I can harvest vegetables from my garden in January.
My latest excursion out to the vegetable garden found Swiss chard, leaf lettuce, peas, spinach, broccoli, and carrots ready for picking.
Except for the broccoli (which I had other plans for), all of my freshly-picked veggies were going into our salad
One crop that I have really enjoyed growing this year, is Swiss chard. It grows so easily and I love its rainbow-colored stems.
Believe it or not, Swiss chard tastes delicious in salads.
My lettuce had a tough start this fall with caterpillars eating much of it until I brought out the big guns – BT Bacillus thurgiensis, which is an organic control for the caterpillars. It worked just great! I used Safer Brand 5163 Caterpillar Killer II Concentrate, 16 oz.
I won’t go into all the details of how it works, although it is quite interesting. For those of you who would like to learn more about BT, click here.
Here is a close-up of my salad. You can’t see the carrots too well, but they are there.
It was so refreshing and delicious, especially when dressed with my grandmother’s ‘Top Secret’ Salad Dressing‘.
I have recently revealed my grandmother’s secret recipe to my daughters, who now can make easily.
So, what is in store for my vegetable gardens this month?
I have planted another crop of radishes, carrots, leaf lettuce and spinach.
Next month, will be a busy month in the garden with getting ready to plant warm-season veggies.
I can hardly wait!
Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
